RAILWAYS AND ROUTES. "UNDE ET Quò ?"-Horace. THE traveller from London has only to make his choice, and placing himself in the railway-carriage at noon, he will alight with the best part of the summer-day left for a stroll on any part of the coast between the Foreland and Portland Lights. With a change, swift as by the magic-carpet, he may breakfast in the din of the metropolis, while the living stream and the roll of wheels are yet setting into the city, and be transported before evening to the side of the breezy sands of the coast of Devon, or look out upon the moors of Cornwall. A confused succession of hedge and copse, echoing station, trains passing with the shrill scream of the engine as it flashes by town and village, dark chilly tunnels, cuttings driven through the chalk-down, cottages and gardens, yellow stubble and green pastures; a roar and rattle of the iron-way, under the trails of fleecy clouds of steam ;-and then the traveller is free to choose his "local habitation." Few hours now suffice to accomplish a journey which a century ago occupied days; and the excursion fare renders the expense light indeed, when compared to the expenditure of fifty pounds by a gentleman and his family, but a hundred years ago, for a coach to Holyhead. The railways are grouped in the following Tables, and classified under the ordinary routes, so that the intending tourist, sitting at home in his arm-chair, may readily select the journey most agreeable to himself, and extend or shorten his travels at his convenience or pleasure. Having adopted, as we believe, the more convenient and popular arrangement, the topographical in preference to the intricate cross references of the itinerary, it will be useful to point out in a concise manner the more interesting objects grouped round the central points here selected. We hope thus to consult the advantage of both the resident and tourist. It has been our endeavour to simplify the Table of intermediate communication, and indicate the nearest station to places of interest through which a railway does not pass. The first collective Guide - Book was published by Mr. Carey, in 1799, under the title of Balnea; it includes "all the popular watering-places" enumerating on the south coast, Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Brighton, Bognor, Littlehampton, Southampton, Lymington, and Weymouth. After every allowance has been made for the lively and sarcastic spirit of the writer, the work shows that the towns were wretched, the accommodation execrable, and the taste of the visitors at the lowest ebb. Southampton was not provided with a bathing-machine; the assembly-room, the theatre, and tavern-garden, the raffle, and less reputable amusements, offered the staple pleasures. Happily the wonders of the shore, the bracing walk or cheerful drive, the botanist's box and the sketchbook, now suffice to wile away the summer holiday, whilst comfortable lodgings can be found to suit every purse. "Travel in the younger sort is a part of education, in the elder a part of experience;" we have made, therefore, "diligent inquiry," as Lord Bacon recommends, and in accordance with his advice, prefaced our volume with the accompanying "card" of routes, pointing out "whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go; churches and monasteries with the monuments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns, and so the havens and harbours, antiquities and ruins, colleges, shipping and navies, houses and gardens of state and pleasure, armouries, arsenals and magazines of state." To these we have added notices of fine points of natural scenery, and suggestions for walks and drives in the neighbourhood of the principal places of resort. The names of places most deserving of notice are printed in italics. |